New York, September 8, 2009

Before I forget, I have a ton of photos from the summer trip on Flickr:

• London
• Paris
• Rome
• Tuscany
• New York

A good time was had by all.

I had a really good week since I last signed in. (Of course, I find myself able to write here maybe only because I was unable to write a column for iFanboy, but eventually, it will all even out.) First off, I ended up getting called back three times in three weeks, with two of them going quite well...the other...good, but not great. No matter. I had a few this week and am feeling a little more steady on my feet these days. Let's hope we get some callback calls today or tomorrow.

I had a really great experience happen the other day. It was a callback for a voiceover, actually, one for a DisneyWorld/Land promotion. I don't want to get into specifics because I don't want to jinx anything, but suffice to say, a voiceover callback is way different than a commercial one. You go directly to the studio where they record the audio, which is a place where people spend a lot of time. People hole up in these studios for weeks and months and there is a clear effort to make the environment as comfortable as possible. I mean, I went into the lobby area, signed in, and was immediately invited to get coffee, water, juice, donuts or whatever else I wanted from the handsomely appointed kitchen area, then sat in a legitimately comfortable sofa while we waited for the director to arrive.

While we were waiting (there were 8 of us, each playing different characters in the spot), the producer told us that the short interview we had before the audition, not the actual audition itself, was the primary reason why we got brought back in. I had to laugh--the guy running the auditon session (it was weird, it was a voiceover audition, but we did it in a regular casting room, and were filmed while we talked toward the microphone) asked me where I was from, and I talked about how I grew up in San Francisco but that my parents now lived in Marin, which was where all the kids who had money (and the cocaine, apparently) were from when I was in high school. It was totally off the cuff and I really didn't actually mean to say it, but we all cracked up, and, well, i guess they cracked up when the saw the tape.

The callback was super fun. We all piled into a large recording booth, where we each had a chair, a stand for the script, and a microphone. It was like we were singing We are the World or something! It was a really long callback (over an hour in the booth), where we all got a chance to play different characters, finishing up with some long stretches of improvised chatter between all the characters. I gotta tell you, it was a lot of fun, like, you can see why voiceover gigs are so valued here. It's just fun and, though stressful, not as stressful as working in front a camera, with the lights and the blocking and the makeup, etc. Since we did something like 18-20 takes, I was able to really relax into the characters I was playing, and hit lines the way I wanted to.

When we were wrapping up, one of the actors asked when the spot would be playing, and we laughed, because, technically, we were just on a second audition--we hadn't booked the job, it just felt like we were actually recording the spot. Honestly, I mean, I don't want to jinx anything, but I would be surprised if we didn't book the gig--there was no one else waiting for us when we left the studio, and there were no other names on the callback list...of course, they could have been booked to come in later in the day, etc, etc, but it doesn't really matter. We had a good time, the director had a great time working with us, and we all did our best to do the part the way we were going to do the part.

So, who knows? It's been a busy week so far, with a lot of work, and auditions to boot. I had an incredibly great time with the Western Addition Crew (WAC?) this week (Matt, Gary and Ravi), hanging out at Gary's amazing pad....after so many years apart in different cities (and countries), it's great to have some of my oldest friends back in the area.

Okay! I'll let you know how it goes as soon as I find out!